The best part of winter..

Is fruit stuff. This stuff doesn't have a name. Just "fruit stuff". There's nothing to it, really. Just oranges and grapefruit, cut up into a fruit salad, marinating in its own juice. This is really popular with the family. When we were all at home, we could go through about 80 pounds of fruit in a season between four people--40 lbs. each of grapefruit and oranges. This is a 5 lb. bag of grapefruit and approximately as much of oranges. I had 4 left over out of an 8 lb. bag.





The part that makes this great is Texas grapefruit from the Rio Valley. So sweet, so red, needs no sugar! A little more expensive here than the Florida grapefruit, but it's worth the extra cost to me to have something that truly tastes like home.

Yum!

It's Christmas already!?

This one comes from F, and I haven't seen it before, so what the heck. Besides, according to the people who do marketing, Xmas started 3 weeks ago, and I'm officially late! ha!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?
Yes. Usually gift bags come out if the gift is unusually shaped. Or if I'm feeling lazy. Or if I run out of a certain kind of paper. Or if I know I won't get the bag back in the end. I tend to recycle gift bags. I'm also one of those strange people who really likes to wrap presents, so I tend to try to make either as elaborate as I can.

2. Real tree or Artificial?
REAL. Smells better, looks better, feels better. I could go on a long rant about how they are actually better for the environment than the fake ones (and I can prove it), but I'll skip that here. And for God's sake don't buy the fake tree scent stuff!

3. When do you put up the tree?
I haven't put up a tree where I live in a while. When I was in MD 2 years ago, it was two days before because that's when I got there and I was the only one putting out effort on that front (notice a trend, anyone???). If I travel back to Texas, I tend not to bother with a tree, but I'll put up other things.

4. When do you take the tree down?
See above. The rest of the decorations usually come down the weekend/week after New Years.

5. Do you like Egg Nog?
Actually, no. And I even had the opportunity to try it with real unpasteurized eggs and enough rum to kill any germs that might be in those eggs. And I still didn't like it.

6. Favorite gift received as a child?
hmmm...you know, I don't really remember one or another being a favorite. My parents could definitely go in for odd, though. When I was about 8 or so, I got a HUGE roll of scotch tape in my stocking. I must have had a confused look on my face, because my mom told me that Santa must know that I like to make stuff, and that I might be easier to be good if I had my own instead of taking hers all the time (I became the Thief/Keeper of All Scissors and Tape at about 4 years old). I used every inch of that tape.

7. Hardest person to buy for?
Dad's hard now, because if he wants it, he gets it. And if he wants it and doesn't have it, it costs $1,500 (taking the form of a new camera lens)

8. Easiest person to buy for?
Molly is a lot of fun to buy for, though it usually takes a while. Often if I get gifts for friends, they're the easiest. In fact, usually the friends that get gifts are the ones for whom inspiration struck while I was shopping!

9. Do you have a nativity scene?
We did when I was little. I can't remember if I have one in my Xmas box from MD. I make it to church, though. :) And in TX, it's often several times.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards?
Who in the hell eMails Christmas cards?

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?
I'm allowed to say it now: Anything that came from Robert's mom. *evil grin*

12. Favorite Christmas Movie?
The (otherwise unranked) top 3 are: National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, Charlie Brown's Christmas, and George C. Scott's A Christmas Carol. Watching the last one is a Christmas Eve tradition--put it in after we get back from church with some wine. Mom HATED that that became a tradition..

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas?
Sometime about the first week of December, though I try to start in November, if possible. Mom would grab deals in the summer and save them.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?
No. I have returned them for things that I'll actually use, though.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?
Hmm..my first thought was "cookies". But now that Christmas is in TX and I'm usually not, I think I'll answer "Mexican Food"

16. Lights on the tree?
"Twice as many as you think you need" is about right.

17. Favorite Christmas song?
"O come O come Emmanuel". In Latin. And "In the Bleak Midwinter". That one needs a choir though, for the cool "Snow on Snow" harmony/echo.
For a reasonable (normal) answer, I really like the Chipmunks Christmas Song, too.
I feel like I got spoiled on the Christmas songs after singing them in HS choir for four years. Somewhere I permanently learned the words to A LOT of the more obscure ones, and a fair number of them in foreign languages..so my favorites are NEVER played on the radio nor are they sung in church, usually.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home?
I think it's been fairly well established by now. Xmas=Travel (usually to TX) for me. When I was a kid it almost never involved travel. I'm not sure which I prefer.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer?
Hmm..Rudolph. Dasher, Dancer, Comet, Cupid, Donder, Blitzen...down by two.

20. Angel on the tree top or a star?
Stars usually look less tacky.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning?
When we were little, mom would let us open 2 the night before. Now we do all of them the morning of.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year?
The radio stations that started playing 24/7 Xmas music on November 1st. And the fact that Thankgiving isn't even allowed to be it's own holiday. And that all the stores started putting up their merch. on October 1st. I'm already sick of looking at it.

23. Favorite ornament theme or color?
Ornaments have themes? Is "I made it when I was 6 and it's been going on the tree ever since" a theme?

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner?
Gumbo. Actually, we don't DO much for Christmas dinner. None of the ceremony, "everyone dress up and gather together" sort of thing. We're all wrapped up in our comfy clothes (or shorts and t-shirts, depending on the weather), and we all kinda migrate in and out all day.

25. What do you want for Christmas this year?
I've given out a list of things--Bellydance sword, melodia pants, and the Wall-E movie, but it's hard to think of things because I've already gotten what I really wanted-a job and the ability to stay in a living situation that I like. The only other thing I really want is my name back, and I get that in February/March.

I'm feeling pretty lucky/grateful as I head into 2009....


26. Who is most likely to respond to this?
uh...no one because responses don't usually abound around here!

27. Who is least likely to respond to this?
The list is long, here.

Step One...

This is a post I've been meaning to do for a while. Now that I don't have the thesis looming over my shoulders all the time I've been able to start taking whacks at the list of things I said I was going to do when I was done. Properly speaking, Step One was to find a job. Step Two is to get out of the debt I accrued when living on next to nothing. To that end, I did this:

I've left one behind for emergencies...but other than that, that's all of them. They are going away so I am in no way tempted to use them! A little bit of debt built up when I was married, as my credit rating was better than Robert's. So, to that end, any debt we accrued was in my name, and then we aggressively paid down his (what little was left). Naturally, when we split, I got to take the debt with me. I'm grateful now that I can afford to get rid of it!

Step Three: build up some emergency cash...


On a related note, I do intend to keep this blog better updated now that the thesis is done. Keep checking for more updates!

Big ol' jet liner...don't carry me too far away

While prowling the internet tonight, I came across this article describing dream symbols that point to stress. Oddly enough, I don't remember any of those dreams from when I was thesis-writing. In fact, I don't remember any dreams from that time. Only that I went to bed tired, woke up tired, groaned, looked at the clock, swore a bit, and got back to work.

One of the changes I have noticed since moving into the Hollow is that my dreams have become much more vivid. Not only that, they have become much more frequent. Maybe it's the lack of stress or the dark room (how long have I waited for one of those!), but whatever it is, it's working. I've been having a lot of dreams about travelling lately. Not actually being in new places, but in getting there. Going to the airport, going through security, and walking around the terminal, going to my plane. Before I got a job, I would sometimes get so far as being on the plane, but I'd always be taken off for whatever reason. I was waiting for something. Now, I don't get on any planes, but Mom is with me. She never tells me anything important, or even says much at all, but she's there, and I feel at peace with her presence. It's nice.

In general life news, the job is going well, and I'm liking it. I have to admit it feels very strange to not be fighting for respect in my work. I'm not quite sure what to make of it. Every time I go in to discuss my ideas with one of my bosses, I mentally prepare myself for an argument, for having to defend every aspect of what I think. It seems almost anticlimatic to only hear "Those ideas are interesting, Rebecca. That's a different perspective we hadn't thought of," and be sent off to my little space to think some more. In a lot of ways, this blows my mind a bit. I feel like there should be another shoe to drop or something. Or could it be that this is God's way of finally giving me the little mental stress break I've been needing for...oh, the past 14 months? I feel like I've been fighting someone for something for so long, that I almost don't know what to do. These past two weeks have almost felt...dull. I think I could get used to it.

Does this mean that I finally have some mental and emotional space to sort myself out in without putting undue burden on myself, my family, or the government at large? If so, thanks, God, I need it!